Present pulping operations of the kraft and sulfite types have a number of disadvantages. For example, both processes require equipment which is costly to fabricate and maintain. In the kraft process, the yield of pulp is relatively low due to the severe attack on the hemi-celluloses, in particular. Further, because of the nature of the requirements of the furnace used in the kraft process for recovering inorganic chemicals and fuel values from the various wash streams which contain solubilized wood solids, units of an extremely large capacity must be used to make the operation economically feasible. Sulfite pulping processes also suffer from poor recovery of processing chemicals and of heat values from the dissolved organic acid components washed from the lignocellulose. In both the kraft and sulfite methods, the necessary use of sulfur-containing processing chemicals vastly complicates these recovery operations because of corrosion problems, while also giving rise to the production of malodorous products in the several pulping, washing and chemical recovery steps, particularly in the case of the kraft process.